Disease & Disaster

Try as we might, when humanity takes on Mother Nature, we are usually at its mercy. An event as enormous as a volcanic eruption or as tiny and insidious as a virus can affect civilization in profound ways and serve as a grim reminder of our own mortality.

Follow scientists as they uncover “deviant” burials dating back to medieval England, pointing to a belief that the dead could rise from their graves. Predating Eastern European legend, these discoveries force a re-examination of modern vampire lore.

Near the fabled Pompeii is Herculaneum, a city frozen in time by Mount Vesuvius. Herculaneum Uncovered follows geo-archaeologists as they unearth precious artifacts, revealing how the epic eruption devastated the town in a very different manner than Pompeii.

On its final night at sea, the Andrea Doria luxury liner was broadsided by the 13,000-ton Stockholm in an accident that imperiled more than 1,700 passengers and crew. With the world watching in horror, the Andrea Doria sank, sparking a ferocious debate over fault that remains to this day and ended the era of luxury cruise liners.

In 64 AD, Rome was the most magnificent city in the world. Then, in the early hours of July 19, fire broke out in the cook shops and cafés lining the Circus Maximus. Centuries later, questions linger. Was the fire an accident, or was it arson? Is Tacitus a reliable witness? Nero blamed the catastrophe on the Christians — is there any truth to his accusation?

In 1665, a British tailor opened a flea-infested shipment of fabric from London. In a matter of days, the tailor and much of the village were suffering the telltale signs of bubonic plague, the disease that wiped out a third of the European population. 350 years later, an American geneticist is delving into the reasons why some managed to survive the Black Death while others were not so lucky.

Three years after setting foot on American shores, 440 of the original 500 Jamestown settlers had died. Why did deadly outbreaks strike just after the ships headed home? And is it a coincidence that the only map of the colony today belongs to Spain? Take a 21st-century look at the eerie the plight of these fated settlers.

The trouble in Salem began during the cold, dark Massachusetts winter, in January of 1692. Eight young girls began to take ill, beginning with 9-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams. But theirs was a strange sickness.

A newly translated 19th-century book describes martial arts techniques designed to help police officers of the time. The book, with illustrated instructions, was written by samurai and published in 1888.

1. Bodies of 800 Young Children Found
Archaeologists discovered the bodies of about 800 young children ahead of the construction of a road in Lancashire. They were among 1,967 bodies exhumed at St Peter’s Burial Ground. Read more at BBC.
2. On This Day: January 26
On January 26, 1945, Soviet troops entered Auschwitz, Poland, freeing survivors of German Nazi concentration camps. Read more at History.
The death factory at Auschwitz was a ...

On January 11, 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. Earhart was born in Kansas in 1897 and started learning to fly when she was 24. She disappeared with her navigator in 1937 over the Pacific Ocean during an attempt to fly around the globe.

A team of German-Egyptian archaeologists and conservators have begun the painstaking work of restoring King Tutankhamun's burial mask, which was accidentally broken off and then hastily glued back last year.

For decades, archaeologists have speculated on the location of the remains of Nefertiti, Egyptian queen and the Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten. She is the last royal mummy missing from the dynasty of the famous King Tutankhamun. New research suggests her secret tomb could be hidden in King Tut’s tomb.

Here’s the latest update to the story of Duffy's Cut. In 1832, Catherine Burns left Ireland for Philadelphia where she found work at Duffy’s Cut — a railroad construction site staffed by Irish Catholics. Less than two months later, Catherine and several others would disappear forever. It was assumed that a cholera epidemic sweeping the East Coast killed the railroad workers, but contemporary research suggests foul play was involved.